Susumu tonegawa biography books

Susumu Tonegawa

Japanese scientist (born 1939)

Susumu Tonegawa (利根川 進, Tonegawa Susumu, born September 5, 1939) is a Japanese scientist who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism which produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his work in immunology, Tonegawa is a molecular biologist by training and he again changed fields following his Nobel Prize win; he now studies neuroscience, examining the molecular, cellular and neuronal basis of memory formation and retrieval.

Early life and education

Tonegawa was born in Nagoya, Japan and attended Hibiya High School in Tokyo. While a student at Kyoto University, Tonegawa became fascinated with operon theory after reading papers by François Jacob and Jacques Monod, whom he credits in part for inspiring his interest in molecular biology. Tonegawa graduated from Kyoto University in 1963 and, due to limited options for molecular biology study in Japan at the time, moved to the University of California, San Diego to do his doctorate study under Dr. Masaki Hayashi. He received his Ph.D. in 1968.

Career

Tonegawa conducted post-doctoral work at the Salk Institute in San Diego in the laboratory of Renato Dulbecco. With encouragement from Dr. Dulbecco, Tonegawa moved to the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland in 1971, where he transitioned from molecular biology into immunology studies and carried out his landmark immunology studies.

In 1981, Tonegawa became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1994, he was appointed as the first Director of the MIT Center for Learning and Memory, which developed under his guidance into The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Tonegawa resigned his directorship in 2006 and currently serves as a Picower Professor of Neuroscience and Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Ins

  • Susumu tonegawa antibody diversity

    • 51 Susumu Tonegawa

    Susumu Tonegawa

    Time period:

    September 5, 1939 – present

    Subject:

     Genetics, Immune system, Biotechnology

    Biography:

    Susumu Tonegawa, Japan’s First Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, is a distinguished molecular biologist and immunologist. He was born in Nagoya, Japan, and grew up as the second of three sons in a family where his father worked as an engineer in the textile industry. He grew up in the small provinces in Japan but moved to Tokyo to receive a better education, where he would grow an interest in chemistry.After one failed attempt, Tonegawa was admitted to the University of Kyoto to the Department of Chemistry in 1959. This period coincided with political unrest surrounding the renewal of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, an agreement signed in 1951 permitting U.S. military bases in Japan. Kyoto University, where Tonegawa was a student, became a hub for radical leftist student groups, resulting in frequent class cancellations due to political discussions and street demonstrations. When the treaty was extended for another 10-year term, Tonegawa, along with his classmates felt defeat. This experience greatly influenced his shift from his original goal of becoming a chemical engineer to pursuing an academic path.

    After his undergraduate studies, Tonegawa began his molecular biology graduate study under Itaru Watanabe at the Institute for Virus Research at Kyoto University. After two months, Watanabe suggested that Tonegawa continue his graduate studies in the United States as he recognized the limitations of molecular biology training programs in Japan. With Watanabe’s assistance, Tonegawa was admitted to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1968 studying phages under Masaki Hayashi in the Department of Biology.

    Soon after starting his postdoctoral research, he applied to work at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland

  • Susumu tonegawa nobel prize
  • How old is susumu tonegawa

    • Tonegawa, Susumu

    Immunologist Susumu Tonegawa (born 1939) received the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine for his discovery of the principle under which human genes rearrange to form the antibodies that fight disease. As a graduate student in 1968 he left Japan to earn his Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of California at San Diego. He then traveled to the Basel Institute of Immunology in Switzerland where he conducted his Nobel winning research. After ten years, he returned to the United States to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Cancer Research. In 1998 as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, he used genetically engineered mice to research mechanisms used in learning and memory.

    Interest in Chemistry Turned to Biology

    Susumu Tonegawa was born in Nagoya, Japan, on September 6, 1939, the son of textile engineer Tsutomu and mother Miyoko. He had two brothers and a sister. His father needed to travel to various textile factories around the rural part of southern Japan, causing the family to move every few years. Staunch believers that parents owe their children a good education, Tonegawa's parents sent him and his elder brother to live with an uncle in Tokyo so the boys could easily commute to the topranking Hibiya High School. In high school, Tonegawa developed an interest in chemistry.

    Expecting to pursue chemical engineering in college, Tonegawa took the entrance exams for the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kyoto. Although he failed the first time, he succeeded the second time and was admitted in 1959. At this time, Japan was one year away from renewing a 10-year defense treaty with the United States. College students rallied in with their opinions and demonstrations, some causing so many disturbances that classes at Kyoto University were often cancelled. When Japan decided to renew the treaty, Tonegawa and other students felt a sense of defeat. In this atmosphere, Tonegawa

      Susumu tonegawa biography books

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